Collaboration
by GillianRose
Summary: One shot; set in an improbably happy future. Mal and Inara tell a story or two. Thanks to Charlie BZ and browncoat 2x2 for all their help. Disclaimer: I do not own firefly, just waiting for my Big Damn Sequel!


"I thought you were leaving."

"In a bit." Mal looked vaguely around the room. "But we're landing near to Cielito, thought I might - "

"Ah." Inara rose and crossed to her wardrobe, touching lightly with her fingers as she guided each dress, one at a time, to the right. "Where is it?"

"Where's what?"

"My red gown. I knew I had something to do today, now I remember." Inara wiggled two fingers, each in turn, as she recited her list. "Get dressed up. Go into town and slap Captain Reynolds." She caressed one elegant hand - the slapping hand, if memory served - with the other, then folded them around each other while she smiled. "Hard."

Mal looked her up and down. The insolence in his expression wasn't helping his case. "Want me to spell it out, why that ain't happenin'?."

"Cielito is the next town over from Paradiso." She pronounced each word slowly, but her smile stayed intact.

Mal waved a dismissing hand. "Nothing more than a milk run."

Inara shut the closet door. "That's all you're doing these days."

"And that's all we will be doing 'til I say otherwise."

"I'm not complaining, it just seems a trifle...cautious. I know there are contacts you've been putting off. Legitimate work. We don't have to stay this close - "

"We take the jobs the Captain decides on. And I'm the Captain, same as I was last time we had this delightful conversation." He smiled, ignoring her narrowed eyes. "'Sides, the sheriff and I came to an understanding that night." His face became speculative. "Probably only one thing he'd like settled."

"What's that?" She kept the suspicion from her voice.

"Same thing every other man in that station wanted to know, darlin'." His voice went deeper, softer. "Just exactly what would a Registered Companion keep an indentured man for?"

He leaned down. One hand moved her hair off her neck, exposing her skin as he whispered his guess in her ear. "Practice?"

"Hardly." Inara dismissed the idea with a shake of her head, but her eyes were twinkling merrily. She studied his face while she drew a slow breath and exhaled. "She bought his contract for the most honorable of reasons." She paused once more, thinking. "The Companion heard some nefarious types threatening the Man's former master - they were both staying at the same small hotel." Inara gave Mal a satisfied nod before going on. "He was desperate for coin, and begged her to buy the contract. She didn't even know who the Man was."

"Might not have known who he was, but she'd seen him before, in the hotel." He raised his eyebrows suggestively. "Liked what she saw." Mal caught her hand and pulled. Inara let him.

"And he knows this because...?" She moved closer.

"Because of the look of her when their eyes met. No doubt she acquired that contract with the sole intention of slaking her womanly lust upon his person." He let one slow finger trace the shadowed line of her skin at the edge of her bodice. His eyes followed the finger.

Inara giggled softly, beaming at him. "She intended no such thing! The Companion is the soul of charity!"

"Charity? Then why didn't she tear up the contract, send the Man on his way?" One kiss, so soft, against the ear he'd whispered in. "She had slakin' on her mind."

"That's not the truth of it at all." Inara drew her hands over her hair, smoothing it into place with a forbidding look. "The Companion tried several times to bring up the subject of the contract, of ending their arrangement, but the Man apparently hasn't had much experience with civilized conversation. He can turn the most innocent exchange into an argument. He's difficult, hostile, and insulting. And he doesn't listen."

Mal shook his head, thinking as he stretched, then lay back against their pillows. "The Man could escape any time he pleased. But the land they're travelling through ain't safe territory, and, irritating though she is, the Man wouldn't leave her to make her way alone. He's a gentleman like that." Mal reached back and adjusted a pillow. "Besides, he knows she ain't rich, he aims to leave her the money she paid for his contract before he leaves."

Inara snuggled against his side, smiling with contentment. "He can't bear to leave her."

Mal put an arm around her, but shook his head. "He's being chivalrous, is all."

She rested her cheek against his shoulder and beamed her challenge up at him. "Oh, so he's not yearning for her night and day?"

Mal caught her hand and brought it up for a kiss. "He's noticed she's easy on the eyes. But she's awfully bossy. Forever having him tote her gear to and fro, watching him."

"Perhaps she's noticed his inclination to do as he likes, rather than as he's told."

"She lives for the opportunity to correct him, while he's standing there all...sweaty and exerted. It's a sultry planet."

Inara sighed airily. "She barely notices such things. It has not escaped her attention, however, that his eyes linger on her." She felt his shoulder move under her as he shrugged.

"He's only human. And the things she wears, flouncing around the house..."

"There is no flouncing in this story." Inara paused, considering, then nodded in satisfaction. "In fact, the Man is a rake. A notorious seducer. He teases the Companion mercilessly - "

"Ain't mercy she's crying out for, alone in that bed of hers at night."

Inara's tone turned prim. "She's a gentlewoman."

"Until she catches him bathing."

"No, no, no, it is he who finds himself entranced at a glimpse of her lovely wet shoulders as she bathes, in what she thinks is a perfectly private room."

Mal grinned at her description. "Shoulders ain't all he sees."

"He's peeping?" Inara's eyes went wide.

"No, standing at the ready in an adjoining room after he's toted hot water for her tub. Waitin' on her next command." Mal whispered the last word, insinuating. "And keepin' her safe, this town doesn't have much in the way of respectable lodgings. But there's a little basin, he thinks to wash the sweat - "

"From his gleaming muscles?" Her smile was so bright.

He returned the smile as he kissed her. "Thought she barely noticed."

"She notices him catching her reflection in the inevitable, strategically placed mirror."

"She didn't close the door?"

Inara shook her head at Mal, dismissing his line of speculation. "It's an old hotel, the walls aren't plumb. The door fell open."

"He's doin' his damnedest not to look - "

"She's determined not to succumb to his wiles - "

Mal smiled at this. "No wiles, He was an honest man, in business with his best friend until he earned the wrath of the friend's wife."

"How did he accomplish this?"

"He resisted her adulterous advances, so to avenge herself she had him stolen away and indentured."

"Women can't resist him?" Her smile was indulgent.

"It's a curse." Mal shook his head at the tragedy of it, then went on in a different tone. "She's peeking in that mirror."

"She wants to see if it's safe to leave the water. If he's watching her. Her robe is on the hook on the wall."

"All the way across the room." Mal let his eyes move over her hotly. "And her trailin' soap bubbles with every step. Wouldn't that be a sight."

"He might be a gentleman and close the door."

"He moves to do just that, 'til he sees how she's looking at him, all wanton."

Inara smiled into his kiss, encouraging him to continue.

"He brings her the robe."

"Because he wants her so desperately."

"It's her that catches his hand."

Inara shook her head. "Her fingertips barely graze his. It was probably an accident."

"She's not telling him to go. And there's precious few bubbles floating in that tub."

"Well, he's wearing nothing but the towel around his waist."

"He didn't have his trousers on?" Mal looked to Inara, and chuckled to see her shake her head, grinning, eyes aglow.

"She stands up in the tub, calmly reaches for her robe."

"He's done for. And she knows it, wicked woman."

Inara purred in his ear. "Well of course she knows it. It would be impossible not to." She kissed him again, softly. "He can't resist her."

"He's beyond trying."

"They spend all night in each other's arms, making love over and over..."

"But in the morning when he wakes he finds she's gone and gotten herself kidnapped!"

"No!" Inara insisted, throwing Mal an exasperated look. "She's tired of the woman being kidnapped all the time. He gets kidnapped!"

"Why would anyone kidnap the indentured man?" His voice was skeptical.

"He's very, very, very...very irritating. He's made enemies."

"Four very's? That strictly necessary, darlin'?"

"Oh, yes. Absolutely."

Mal waved his hand as if to dismiss this plot development. "The Man goes to rescue her straight away."

"The Companion finds where the villians have hidden the Man, and she tries to free him, but he is drugged, in a stupor and making no sense." Her giggles shook the bed. "He can barely walk."

"He follows the villains and beats every man jack of them senseless, then breaks down the door to where she is. He's manly like that."

"Fortunately, the Companion has plucky and resourceful friends who help her shelter the Man until he stops drooling and tripping over his own boots."

"She near faints away in gratitude at the sight of him, coming to her rescue."

"He's very contrite about all the horrible things he's said to her, since it turns out she was the only one who could save him."

Mal smiled at this.

Inara continued after a moment. "They make passionate love that night, all night long."

Mal sighed, rolled his eyes. "Again." Moved his hand, quickly, to intercept the fingers that liked to poke him in the ribs on these occasions. "When she wakes in the morning, she finds him preparing to leave. He took a good sack of coin from the villains, so she'll get her compensation."

Inara sat up, looked at Mal in disbelief. "He's leaving?"

"Too hard to be around her, feeling like he does."

"Doesn't he know how she feels?"

"She never did say."

"Did he - say?"

Mal's eyes were intent on hers. "Fraid not."

"All night long with no - saying?" Inara's voice rose and nearly choked speaking this last word, her hurt and bewilderment unfeigned.

"He didn't want her to pity him, the hired hand in love with his mistress. He could barely stand to think on it himself." Mal considered this. "She could speak up first, make it easy on him."

Inara traced the backs of Mal's fingers as she thought. "She was afraid that with everything he'd been through, he would hate her."

"She can't let him leave."

"She can't make him stay."

"Nakedness might help." He grinned encouragingly.

Inara's sharp look told him clearly she would have none of it. "This isn't about sex, it's about love."

Mal dropped his voice, muttered rebelliously, not yet willing to budge from his point. "Nakedness wouldn't hurt."

"That's just gratuitous nakedness for nakedness' sake," she huffed at him in reproach. "One of them has to be brave."

"Swallow some pride."

There was so much love in her voice. "Be truthsome." She lifted her face to his, kissed his cheek softly. "She'll do it."

"He was about to - "

"She doesn't want him to leave without knowing -" The words came faster then, from both of them.

"He's sure it's hopeless but he needs her to know - "

"That he's loved her all along? All through the times he was difficult, and judgemental, and presumptuous, and cold, and -" She stopped talking when he kissed her.

His voice was tender. "That he's loved her all along."

"Does he say?"

"What about her? Fella could use a little encouragement."

Inara thought. "She walks to the door ahead of him."

"Is the door open or closed?"

"Closed, of course. It's a frontier rooming house."

"Closed door - that could lead to kissin'."

"Oh, there's definitely kissing. Does he whisper his love to her between kisses?"

Mal's arm tightened around Inara. "He aims to take her back to that bed and make her say it.

Inara hummed her approval. "Make love to me," she whispered. "She's trying to let him know how she feels."

Mal's voice was husky. "Maybe she's never used that particular phrase before. The Man is nothing if not obliging."

"Except when he's being contrary. Which he often is."

Mal mock-laughed at this, eyes narrowed and making little coughing sounds before he continued. "So they take to bed."

Inara's voice thrummed with fresh excitement. "And there's an earthquake!"

Mal didn't try to hide the self-satisfied smile. "Made the earth move for her, did he?"

Her eyes were shining. "He did. But the earthquake is real, and they find themselves trapped in the rubble."

"Oh, it takes looming death for these two to declare themselves?"

"They don't take the easy road." Inara lay her hand on top of Mal's, squeezing gently.

"He promises her he will get her to safety or die trying, because he loves her."

"She tells him she needs them both to live, she loves him and wants a future with him."

"Of course they get free of the building."

"She's resourceful. And he's smart, and very strong."

Mal grinned again. "He doesn't mind hearing that."

"She's so happy."

"He never knew he could be this lucky." His voice was quiet as he studied her face, then sent her a confident nod. "They marry, become right prosperous, and get down to business."

"Which is?"

Mal rubbed the round curve of Inara's lower belly, the warm ripe skin he'd returned to, again and again, throughout the story. "Younguns." They shared a smile of contentment.

"Been accessing the favorites list from Kaylee's library again?"

Mal shrugged. "I like the one with the pirate."

This earned a laugh from Inara. "There are hardly any that don't have a pirate, Mal."


End file.
